I don't want it either.

Part of maturing is realizing your mortality and not only coming to 
terms with it but finding great relief and existential depth in it.

One version of hell would be living entirely surrounded by people who 
think they are going to live forever.

/ L

On 31-10-2019 19:17, Zachary Stein wrote:
> You see, I do not want this:
>
>>  Brent Allsop <[log in to unmask] 
>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>
>> I want my knowledge of my spirit, and all my memories, to live 
>> forever in hundreds of different computationally bound brains/bodies, 
>> brains that can be aware of not just 3 primary colors, but 
>> thousands.....  at trillions the resolution....
>
> I admit that I have an instinctual emotional reaction/revulsion at 
> this idea. That is, this reaction happens *if* I take it as a serious 
> desire. Whereas I mostly take it as something like a grandiose 
> fantasy/fiction to amuse/distract the ego from more serious, real, 
> living desires about ones life and death.
>
> Taken seriously, this transhumanist longing for techno-immortality 
> seems like one of those desires for heaven held by a few that will end 
> up creating hell on Earth for everyone else. We’ve had a lot of these 
> over the course of history. This is why I (and I think Lene) are so 
> concerned.
>
> Deeper questions:
>
> Why is it believed to be so bad to simply die, as humans always have?
>
> Why do we trust our technologies more than nature?
>
> Why do we want the ego-personality to continue in perpetuity, as if 
> this were a good thing for us personally and for humanity?
>
>
> My sense is we should all be preparing to die in the good old fashion 
> way and not mixing science fiction so far into our identities that we 
> forget what is inevitable and real about who and what we are.
>
> Not really writing this for you, Brent, but for all the 
> techno-optimist transhumanist rationalists who have lodged their 
> adolescent notions into the heart of what might otherwise be a serious 
> public discussion about digital technology and the future of humanity.
>
> zak
>
> P.S. If you want to “live forever” you will need more than “hundreds” 
> of new bodies. How long to you think “forever" is?
>
>
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